/Climate Change Centre Reading (CCCRdg), who participated in COP 22, which closed on Saturday, 19 November, The meeting rode on the momentum from Paris the uncertainty created by the US election outcome, During the closing plenary, developing countries, expressed concern that this momentum was for post-2020 action, which requires industrialised nations to take the lead.

Produced by Asheline Appleton. Filmed/edited by Herman Njoroge Chege

Below a “glocal” achievment list for local Reading Borough Council and Reading 2050 to commit to of Climate Action Tracker’s ten short-term target, in the footsteps of the Marrakech Vision – http://www.thecvf.org/marrakech-vision

1) Electricity: sustain the growth rate of renewables and other zero and low carbon power until 2025 to reach 100% by 2050

2) Coal: no new coal plants, reduce emissions from coal by at least 30% by 2025

3) Road transport: last fossil fuel car sold before 2035

4) Aviation and shipping: develop and get agreement on a 1.5°C compatible vision

5) New buildings: all new buildings fossil-free and near zero energy by 2020

6) Building renovation: increase rates from <1% in 2015 to 5% by 2020

7) Industry: all new installations in emissions-intensive sectors are low-carbon after 2020; maximise material efficiency

8) Reduce emissions from forestry and other land use to 95% below 2010 levels by 2030, stop net deforestation by the 2020s

9) Commercial agriculture: keep emissions at or below current levels, establish and disseminate regional best practice, ramp up research

10) CO2 removal: begin research and planning for negative emissions

Plus

CITY SOLUTIONS FOR AN URBANIZING WORLDCities100 proves that innovative and progressive climate action is well underway in cities around the world. Here are 100 solutions from 61 cities which show how local governments around the world are taking the necessary steps to mitigate and adapt to climate change, while at the same time creating valuable co-benefits for their economies, communities and citizens’ health. Click below

The highly developed industrialized nations’ responsibility to combat climate change is obvious and cannot be overestimated. Similar to the issue of sustainable consumption and production patterns, the rich countries need to become leading examples if the goal of combating climate change and its consequences is not to remain mere lip service. Effectively reducing CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions is imperative in this regard. The data displayed in figures 13.1 and 13.2 show how far many OECD countries are still lagging behind compared to the respective benchmark countries of the sample.

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Figure 13.1 provides information on production-based CO2 emissions per capita. “Production-based” means that emissions refer to gross direct CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion, emitted within the national territory excluding bunkers, sinks, and indirect effects. In the fi ve leading countries, Mexico, Turkey, Sweden, Portugal, and Hungary, as well as in sixth-ranked Chile, production based CO2 emissions are below 5 tons per capita. These countries’ performances stand in stark contrast to the respective emission levels of countries placed at the bottom of the list, such as Canada, the United States, Australia, and Luxembourg. Here, CO2 emissions range from 15.3 (Canada) to 19.47 tons per capita (Luxembourg).

Click on the picture to enlarge

The second snapshot indicator links emission levels to the size of a country’s economy, and refers to total greenhouse gas emissions per GDP. Greenhouse gas emissions include land use, land-use change, and forestry, and are measured in CO2 equivalents as a percentage of GDP (tons per million constant 2005 int. USD PPP). The findings are remarkable: While Sweden is by far the top-performing country with an amount of 66.75 tons, Estonia comes in last place with 680 tons – more than ten times as much as in the case of the leading country. Moreover, Sweden is the only country ranked among the top five on both indicators chosen here.

With regard to greenhouse gas emissions per GDP, Norway, Switzerland, Finland, and France follow in places two to five. In fifth-ranked France, however, emissions are already nearly four times as high as in Sweden. At the negative end of the spectrum, Canada and Australia again find themselves in the bottom group. Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions per GDP amount to 641 tons, which means that the country ranks second to last on both indicators of goal 13.

Dealing with a climate crisis has now gone #planetary — planners and policy makers alert the importance for vulnerable citizens of having an Urban Climatic Emergency Evacuation Plan/Programme policy in place for the outcome of the New Urban Agenda, proven realistic in an actual emergency. Urban havocs in the footsteps of climate change require for the first time to mainstream disaster relief planning.

Considering the general policies of the national government a draft UCEEP to complement the 2030 agenda, for urban settlement equipped with detailed evacuation plans for facilitating and handling a climate crisis as seen in every continent on the planet.

? FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS DOCUMENT, AN URBAN EXTREME CLIMATIC EVENT IS DEFINED AS ANY ACTUAL CLIMATIC EVENT REQUIRING EVACUATION.

Most urban population living within 30 km of a climate change emergency centre area, and about 10% within 5 km of it. Of the total affected, about 1/3 reside near outside the emergency centre and another 2/3 are within disaster area in the neighbouring urban habitat prefecture. All would have to be evacuated in the event of a disaster, senior citizens (to think through more carefully how to support the evacuation of older people and perhaps include them in future drills, which should be carried out in each district area) and children. The evacuation should be preceded by skilled and realistic capacity building effectiveness drills due to post-evacuation considerations and evaluation.

1.1 – In the first scenario, known as Operational Response Level (ORL) 1, sudden impact disaster detected. In the second scenario, ORL 2, between 36 and 60 warning alerts per hour, with a base level between 12 and 24 warning alerts per hour set for ORL 3.

Catastrophic – urban extreme climatic events of potentially catastrophic proportions that severely disrupt health and social care and other functions (mass casualties, power, water, etc.) and that exceed even collective capability with the support-hub structure. Additionally there are pre-planned major events that require planning, for example, demonstrations, sports fixtures, air shows etc. and may also require a “speedy and effective” climate disaster response. There may also be events occurring on a national scale such as unrest, riots, fuel strikes, pandemic or multiple events that require the collective capability of the healthcare nationally.

CATASTROPHIC IMPACT INCIDENT

First responders, an expandable force will be notified that an urban extreme climatic event has been declared by emergency bleep. Responders would automatically clear routes into cities and establish distribution and medical-hubs (triage centers). Also:

The nature of the Operational Response Level (ORL) 1 Declared may dictate the immediate areas with increased pressures (ie: Hospitals, Government Services, Armed forces). The focus of the Municipality Outreach Team will be to support the rest of the key stakeholders and to assist with critically injured casualties flows where possible.

Respond to emergency bleep and high priority calls in the normal way

Liaise with the Municipality Outreach Team Manager

Liaise with ORL co-ordinator

In addition to loss of life, the emergency plan calculates that as many as 1/10 of the populated emergency centre will require medical attention. Wind, fire and water are estimated to destroy hundreds of structures, with an additional thousands buildings expected to collapse or suffer severe structural damage.

With global disaster relief planning it is possible to estimate and double the additional manpower resources to complete the evacuation civil citizens may also be asked to facilitate movement of casualties from further immediate danger in the disaster district zone to support the first responders. Or to retrieve critically injured from the emergency centre to an area suitable for their comfort and treatment.

Contact members of the Municipality Outreach Team and assess availability over the next 48hrs.

Instant updates and call 24-hour help lines within local authority community website for Emergencies and Public Safety. Information to keep your family, your home and your community safe.

Establish emergency contact procedures among friends and family, including checking how to use Disaster Emergency Dial, a disaster voice message board provided by telecommunications company.

Stock three days of emergency supplies of food, water, and other daily necessities.

Be prepared to evacuate quickly if fires break out.

Refrain from moving about outside or driving unless absolutely necessary.

In ORL 1, evacuation procedures would be put into place immediately of confirming the first shock hazard level. For ORL 2, the time frame is within hours. The plans call for sending more than 1/3 of the emergency centre residents within 5 km to 30 km of the disaster area, towards the nearest preventive evacuation area urban crater, via urban evacuation corridors and tunnels designed for people and multimodal transportation.

Ideally, it would not take 1,000 residents more than 0.5 hours per evacuation corridor to be re-routed to their dedicated preventive urban crater, city arena or support-hub destination (e.g. offices and schools etc).

About 2000 UCEEP cities could offer protection and shelter and give post-disaster support to roughly 200,000,000 residents who also live between 5 km and 30 km of the predestined disaster district zone, and would have to be evacuated. Within the urban habitat prefecture, the flow would be directed to an evacuation area urban crater, to a regenerative city arena or to a disaster support-hub, as well as to peri-urban areas outside the emergency centre area and disaster area. Knowledge of how to avoid and safeguard Disaster response routes (helps emergency responders get to people who need help quickly and to ensure that shipments make it to destinations quickly and smoothly), these are not evacuation routes for use by the general public.

“The inclusion of Ministry of defence (MOD) sites is considered necessary to complete the picture, although it is understood there are difficulties in authorising the use of these sites and that their use cannot be guaranteed. However, it is also understood that the incident that causes the requirement for a large scale evacuation may be of such magnitude, that the MOD would be willing to authorise their use. A database of MOD sites and their potential capabilities is held by the Joint Regional Liaison Officer (JRLO).”

Most of the roughly 10% of residents living within 5 km of climate change emergency centre area would be evacuated to neighbouring towns.

1:2 – A key concern local officials have is how the regional government will initially respond to a sudden impact disaster. The plan for dispatching the first responders and relief goods from the provincial capital calls for Air Self-Defense Force transport planes at dedicated Air Base to fly to nearest local open Air Base in the local habitat Prefecture (a one-hour flight), where their cargo will be transferred to helicopters and ferried over the disaster area to the emergency centre, 30 minutes away.

Yet all the detailed plans are all based on the assumption that the roads leading out of the emergency centre — which perhaps lies in a remote area on the Sea — to the disaster district zones in other parts of the evacuation centre, as well as to neighbouring urban habitat, will not have been damaged; that there will not be mass panic that clogs/paralyse the roads; and that there will be enough time for residents within 30 km of the plant to get to safety; that people won’t be stranded throughout the region also Keeping Level Heads.

Facility Explosion Risk (FER)

Long term evacuation happens if the climatic event has triggered an earthquake or other natural disaster that has destroyed the roads. Or, what happens if an accident occurs in the midst of a blizzard, where icy roads and hazardous driving conditions can lead to accidents that block or paralyse the roads and create long traffic jams?

The Cabinet Office’s plans state that, in the event of a severe natural disaster that makes fleeing by road impossible, and residents will be evacuated by sea from the neighbouring port, which has a Maritime Self-Defense Force base (Although several Prefecture plans to use ships for evacuation, it’s not clear that all harbours will be safe or operable). Helicopters will land at about a dozen designated areas along the main roads in the emergency centre and in the disaster area that lie within the 30-km evacuation radius.

Short term evacuation take place in major cities equipped with up to six preventive evacuation area urban craters, holding stock enough to protect its evacuees for one month. Before it’s safe enough for the inhabitants and residents of emergency centre and disaster area to return to their habitat. Relief supply will include meals, blankets, infant formula, disposable diapers and extra supply of drinking water.

1:3 – It is the central government’s duty to take responsibility in the event of an urban climatic emergency in order to protect the lives of people and their property

For some local politicians outside local community, the evacuation plans represent a challenge and an opportunity. For small towns mayors meet with regional ministers of the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry asking the provincial capital to provide funding in next year’s fiscal budget for improving roads etc.

Hard copy Action Cards are necessary for the municipality due to its size and particularly where temporary staff change fairly frequently. It is not possible for every person employed in the council to know and be completely familiar with the Urban Climatic Emergency Evacuation Plan/Programme in its entirety. Each part in the Urban Climatic Emergency Evacuation Plan/Programme is therefore described on action cards that can be easily obtained and read. These cards are stored within relevant departments in the municipality, which will ensure that the support-hub and evacuation area urban crater of activity during a catastrophic event can respond.
Action cards have been prepared for staff to follow during an urban extreme climatic event. The action cards contain the individual’s responsibilities in performing that role, a checklist of tasks and titles and locations of key contacts. Other members of staff likely to be involved will also work to action cards.

There are a lot of issues in regards to infrastructure for areas of evacuation (inclusive urban vertical evacuation aids) and safeguarding of evacuation routes, pointing out that funding for road improvements had yet to be guaranteed.

3 May 2016: UN Member States, international organizations and stakeholders held a week-long session of Open-Ended Informal Consultative Meetings in preparation for the UN Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III). The Meeting aimed to advance discusssions on the New Urban Agenda to be adopted at Habitat III, and to prioritize actions and identify transformative commitments to move towards sustainable cities.

The Meetings convened at UN Headquarters in New York, US, from 25-29 April 2016.

The meeting was organized around: regional perspectives; transformative commitments for sustainable urban development; effective implementation; and how to enhance means of implementation (MOI). Panel discussions examined recommendations and outputs of the ten Habitat III Policy Units, which focus on: the right to the city and cities for all; socio-cultural urban framework; national urban policies; urban governance, capacity and institutional development; municipal finance and local fiscal systems; urban spatial strategies – land market and segregation; urban economic development strategies; urban ecology and resilience; urban services and technology; and housing policies.

Panels took place on the outcomes of the seven Habitat III thematic meetings that have taken place as part of the preparatory process, which focused on: civic engagement; metropolitan areas; intermediate cities; sustainable energy and cities; financing urban development; public spaces; and informal settlements. Another session reviewed the outcomes of the Habitat III regional meeting.

In the closing session, Clos stressed the importance of urbanization for sustainable development, noting that the understanding of development has changed, as well as that of the role of urbanization in promoting prosperity. Meeting Co-Chair Maryse Gautier, France, welcomed the engagement of all stakeholders and summarized key messages from the week, including that: the resource management system is necessary; urban development must take into account the protection and maintenance of cultural heritage to ensure inclusive cities; informal sectors must be taken into account during spatial planning; and finance must be further mobilized.

Earlier in the month, the final regional meeting for Habitat III took place in Toluca, Mexico, from 18-20 April 2016, with a focus on priority issues for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The meeting resulted in the Toluca Declaration, which will serve as input to the New Urban Agenda. The Toluca Declaration proposes that the following issues be addressed in the New Urban Agenda: urban and territorial planning; urban governance; adequate housing; water and sanitation; sustainable mobility; land management; and environment, climate change and resilience.

The New Urban Governance

The Declaration calls for a new generation of national urban policies built on a new urbanization paradigm that promotes accessibility, adequate housing, equity, security, mobility and cultural identity. It further identifies elements for implementation of the New Urban Agenda at the national and local levels, including: developing innovative models of multi-level governance; promoting institutional solidity, professionalism, transparency and accountability in urban management; establishing spaces for citizens to participate in urban development; promoting sub-national financing mechanisms; and using information technology and communications in public decision making.

At the same time, I want to thank all the governments and peoples who have supported my candidature for this competition. It is with humility that I received your support. The same inside me when I started this race. I also thank my compatriots and the government of my country brought me to this position. I would like to thank of course the various candidates who took part in this democratic and transparent process that has enabled Africa to show the way forward. This is a victory for Africa.

It is now time to return to work. As a pan-Africanist, I will continue to be engaged in the causes of Bad and contribute within the limits of my ability to support its new President as well as to push for the necessary reforms to ensure nature of our bank has the catalyst status for the transformation of Africa.

This will require that we strengthen the progress made over the last 50 years while taking into account emerging issues. In this regard, we must build a bank based on merit, having an intense focus on results and development impact, effectiveness and efficiency as a record dialogue and provision of quality advice to African governments. The African Development Bank must become innovative and we must rely on the ability of the bank to be a capacity-sharing partners and force-party stakeholders, including African governments, development agencies and partners private sector, commercial banks and civil society. This is set to face the great challenges of our time on regional integration, strengthening the status of women, the promotion of science and technology, issues of insularity, climate change or the fragility of States.

In sum, our agenda should aim at putting an end to the management of poverty to focus on the creation and better management of resources in Africa. In this regard, I will devote a significant part of my energy to contribute to ensure that the aspirations of a billion Africans for a new African dawn, a continent at peace with himself, who participated in the global competition on a level equality with other actors, an Africa able to take charge, make this a reality!

Long live Africa! God bless Africa!

Cristina Duarte

Minister of Finance and Planning

Republic of Cape Verde

Distributed by APO (African Press Organization) for the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Republic of Cape Verde.